February 16, 2008
by
Satya Adhar
The second annual
Asian Film Awards (AFA) will take place on March 17th, 2008, coinciding with the opening of Entertainment Expo Hong Kong and the 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). Organized by The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society and sponsored by Film Development Fund and Hong Kong Trade Development Council, AFA honours the best of Asian cinema over the past year.
Based on India's reputation for churning the biggest number of movies, one would have expected the event to be dominated by Desi stuff but it seems more like wishful thinking. A total of
three Indian nominations exist. Even Thailand has done better with five nominations. Japan, south Korea and China/ HK led the pack with more than ten nominations each. The entire nominations list can be accessed
here. Deepika Padukone and
Vishal Shekhar have been nominated from
Om Shanti Om in the Best Actress and Best Composer categories respctively while the third nomination is from a film unheard of - "
Frozen " for Cinematography. This raises some serious questions.
While we are happy and elated when our films do well in US, UK and Germany, why don't we have a significant audience in South East Asia / Korea/ Japan/ China? Are the people who watch Indian Movies are only the diaspora or their third / fourth generations?
Do our films actaully make any impact on pure foreigners as Hollywood films do? Why was the "Asia Film Festival" initiative not taken by us? Are we just a number giant and no good quality films come out of our stable? When we talk of "soft power" why do we exclude these Asian countries?
Take the case of Thailand. Whenever opportunity comes, we never fail to tell our Thai brethern that they are actually Hindus by lifestyle and that India and its culture has had a big impact on their society. However, no indian actor / actress is at all known in Thailand, leave alone popular. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan or Aishwarya Rai are not even properly recognised in Thailand. Isn't it puzzling?
This is a debatable topic and debate there should be. Struck by the “soft power potential” of the Indian film industry across South Asia, West Asia and Africa, a
Canadian Expert suggests , “If [film stars] can go through some training by the government, they can be a huge asset for the country.” I really doubt whether this is reality or just hype.
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